As I was sketching out this project, I aimed to create a sort of news broadcast situation. However, because the news is boring and often only filled with war, destruction, and delusional politicians, I decided to talk about something a little more happy and fun. Live streaming statistics! Yes, I know... I'm a bit of a nerd. 

That being said, this allowed me to really lean into the aesthetic a bit more. I wanted to theme it after the popular live streaming platform twitch.tv. It's currently the leader in the live streaming arena competing against YouTube and Kick for live streaming platform supremacy.

So, to start out, I just wanted to create a sort of stinger transition title card that contained the logo of the fake news network that I was going to make. I have some experience with making stinger transitions already in a bit of a more simple way, so I already had an idea of what I wanted to do, but it actually ended up changing later on in the project (I think it turned out better this way). 

After that, I wanted to design a lower thirds. I originally sketched something out that would have my picture in it, but shortly after the sketching phase of this project realized that a lower third with my face right beneath my face would've been a but redundant. I might use some of these sketches though in a future project changing the face for a brand logo.

From there, I wanted to include a data visualization. This is really where the bread and butter of motion graphics is in content. Being able to disseminate data into a simple to understand visual element. So I first started by gathering my statistics in my sketch book, and then sort of planning out how the movements might work.

Given the data that was being use, I knew a bar graph would be the best graph to illustrate the data, and with this being my first real run with motion graphics, I wanted to just keep the animation easy.

After that, I wanted to create a credits scene. I thought it would be funny to make it look like a twitch stream chat and have the credits appear like twitch chat messages. So I spent some time looking at a twitch stream copying down some of the elements, and went from there. 

Creating the graphics for this motion graphics project was actually quite the interesting endeavor. I had to think about my graphics differently than I would normally. I had to think about the parts that were going to move and how they were going to move. For example, if each bar in the motion graphic is going to move independently, then they need to be different layers. Or with the lower third animating on, I knew that there were three different parts that were basically going to run on. That meant that each of the folds of the lower third needed to be independent layers as well. 

However, probably the most interesting part was the twitch chat credits screen. Because the text was going to be moving, and there were going to be certain animated text elements, I made the decision that it would be easier to animate the text if I added it in After Effects later. So when I was finally finished with creating the base canvas for the credits screen, I honestly felt like I was forgetting a ton. But I have to say that I'm pleased with how it turned out in the end.

When it came to the news, I knew that I needed to script out things first. And usually when I record videos, I end up doing it a few times as dry recordings to work out rough spots in the script. I also just use it as an opportunity to get the jitters out and act like a goofball.

If you check out the video above, you'll see what I'm talking about. 

That being said, I was far from happy with the original rough recording that I made. However, the most unfortunate thing about the whole thing is that after I recorded this, I got sick and lost my voice. I was worried that I was going to have to abandon the project due to other commitments that I had coming up. However, I just kept working on what I could while I tried to get my voice back. 

And that lead us to this beauty!

I ended up getting a lot of the animations working and looking pretty good! I'm really proud of the animations that I put into the data visualization. Which is great because that was one of my major focal points of this project. Just get an idea of how to make data look good in an animated format. I kept it fun and interesting. The ratios might not have been completely accurate, but the numbers were. And at the end of the day, those said more about the data than an accurate representation of how high the bars were in relation to each other. 

As time went on, I finally was able to get enough of my voice back to read the script; however, I was still pretty sick and foggy. But I figured a more refined video with a little less energy was better than what I had in the rough draft of my video.

So I recorded an updated script, fine tuned the animations, added some little sound effects, and here is the final project. 

Honestly, I learned a lot working on this project. I'm used to doing any sort of motion graphics in OBS using plugins and stuff like that. But using a professional software like After Effects opened my eyes to the possibilities of what I could really accomplish if I just sit down and focus on what I'm trying to accomplish. 

My next challenge is going to be to try and make these kinds of motion graphics in Davinci Resolve. It includes Fusion which is a very capable special effects software that can be used to create things like motion graphics. However, instead of being a timeline editor like After Effects is, it's node based, so it presents a different set of hurdles to overcome. But, I'm always up for a challenge.